"Prehistoric is a subjective term." -Timbledere
Origin[]
Homeland: Yunith
Folk[]
An ancient race of mollusks that are enjoying their new life on land. In the primordial eons of forgotten times, before any beast roamed on land, the sea was teaming with life. Some of these creatures are still around in similar forms such as the shark, the horseshoe crab, and the sea slug. Others fell into extinction. Among those were the ammonites. Ammonites were squid-like creatures with spiral shaped shells. We know them by countless fossils suggesting that they were once quite prolific.
With their general simplicity, one would assume ammonites were simple creatures; not much more intelligent than the modern octopus or cuttlefish. This is only partially correct, however. During the age of the ammonites, another creature was also quite successful. This mollusk did not have teeth like the shark, nor did it have a hard shell like the crab. It could not swim very fast, nor did it have particularly good camouflage techniques. It did have two amazing abilities, however, that helped it to survive the countless ages. First, it was a parasite. It could attach itself to the nervous systems of other mollusks and assume control over the host’s body. The zif, as they came to call themselves, were also extremely intelligent.
The zifs preferred the ammonites as hosts. With the ammonite forms, they built great cities. In the course of a million years, they had a thriving undersea civilization. They ruled the world for ages, until a terrible and mysterious force from beyond threatened their existence. The peaceful world that the zifs created ended in a cataclysmic apocalypse of fire, ice, and lightning. The ammonites were wiped from the realm. The zifs, however, retreated and survived.
For the next several eons they would survive in the bodies of colossal deep sea squids. At oppressive depth and darkness, they could continue their civilization unmolested. For millions of years they persevered through countless rises and falls of their civilization, which was accompanied with ages of great discovery and dark times when much knowledge was lost. At the dawn of the age of man, the zif had declined into a race of nearly solitary individuals, teetering on the edge of extinction.
They first learned of mankind from its shipwrecks; and a new movement had sparked. They began to once again dream of roaming free in the world. To do this, they would have to shed their bulky forms and inky lairs. They searched far and wide for a new host that would suit their needs.
Their travels brought them to the snillorgs; a cowardly species of primitive snail people. Snillorgs were a pest on the tiny island that they inhabited. They were known for nocturnal raids of farmland, their timid nature, and their deplorable stupidity. At the time, the entire snillorg population was only about two thousand individuals. This changed immediately after the zif began an aggressive breeding program.
The population of snillorgs grew in secret, while all the zif of the world congregated, plotted, and dreamed. Suddenly and without warning, the land was inundated with countless snail creatures. While it had all the appearances of a wide-scale invasion (and many land creatures mistook it for such) the zif were on a mission of peace. In exchange for new concepts, commodities, and secrets the zif only wanted a place in the world. Most areas welcomed them and greedily accepted all of the strange new elements that only a race as old as time could offer. In areas which would not accept the zif, they simply retreated apologetically.
Zifs as they are today are known by their snillorg forms. These odd creatures have all that one would expect from a humanoid snail. Standing about 5 feet tall, they glide along on one muscular foot. This motion is powered by succeeding waves of muscular contraction which move down the ventral of the foot. A small flat shell known as an operculum rests on top of this foot. They have a long, thin body with arms that are almost skeletal in width. These arms end in equally long and thin three fingered hands. A larger four-foot diameter spiraled shell protrudes from their backs, much like a backpack. Their heads extend practically neckless from their torso and have wide and flat mouths filled with smooth, grinding teeth. Two bulbous antennas protrude from where their nose should be. Their heads are capped with two long eye stalks. Zif eyes are simple black orbs. The most remarkable aspect of the zif’s body is that it is entirely retractable, and fits snugly into the shell that they wear on their backs. When retracted into their shell, the foot shell fits neatly over the main shell’s opening providing maximum protection.
Zifs speak in gurgling voices and smell a bit musky, but not as terribly unpleasant as one might expect. Their yellowish brown skin is particularly slimy as it exudes purplish mucus that aids in movement and maintains the elasticity of their skin. Their shells vary in color and pattern, but are typically black, white, pink, brown, or yellow. Unlike the zif’s previous forms, the snillorg form is primarily terrestrial, and lacks the biology necessary for prolonged underwater life.
Zif are actually two distinct organisms in one. The intelligent part, the actual zif species, starts life as a tiny squidlike mollusk that burrows into the base of another mollusk’s tail and effectively hijacks its nervous system. Once attached, it begins to root itself permanently into the other creature. In the matter of a decade, the zif matures and becomes an enduring feature of the host individual. The host’s original brain and the parasite’s internal organs both atrophy into oblivion and the two organisms effectively become one. The zif parasite (referred to as a larva by the zif) can only attach to other mollusks.
The current host species is the snillorg. A zif can be discerned from a common snillorg by the operculum feature; the zif brain resides under this smaller shell. Snillorgs, and most terrestrial snails in general, do not have an operculum. Snillorgs start life as shelless slugs, about the size of a large cat. They mature quickly, reaching adulthood at age five, at which point they are chosen as hosts for the zif larva. Snillorgs are very prolific, but do not typically care for their young. Naturally, many more snillorg children die than live to grow to maturity. They are voracious herbivores, and love the taste of cultivated food. Before the zif, however, the snillorgs lacked the intellect required for horticulture and often resorted to stealing and raiding. Barring a violent death, which the pre-zif snillorgs were pretty much assured, snillorgs can live for about 80 years without signs of old age. Afterwards, their health declines sharply. The zif die with their host.
One might assume that zifs would choose a variety of host organisms. However, this has never been the case. Zifs often refer to a “collective intellect” that prevents this as an option. While they cannot read each other’s mind, they do have some uncanny sense of each other’s status, knowledge, and memories. When many zif die, the entire race feels it. Inborn knowledge comes to them through this bond, and they are often well-versed on matters that they never studied themselves. Apparently, if they choose hosts that are not similar, the connection that they share becomes interrupted. Therefore, it is customary for the vast majority of zif to all agree on a new host species before they decide to use it. Because of this, the zif have had only three different species of hosts in their entire existence as a species, which spans hundreds of millions of years.
As a mollusk, they lack a skeleton, but do have several floating structures in their body made of hard-but-flexible cartilage. All of their extremities are designed to retract, fold, and generally diminish greatly in size in order to fit neatly into their shell. They exude slime through their pores regularly, and because of this zif generally require about twice as much water as a human of the same weight. The shell of a zif is extremely hard and resilient. It is designed to take a lot of damage and protect the soft parts within.